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Gov. Patrick calls for overhaul of state community colleges in State of the State address

By Chris Camire, ccamire@sentinelandenterprise.com

Updated:
01/24/2012 03:21:27 PM EST

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, center, greets legislators and guests as he enters the House Chamber at the Statehouse in Boston on Monday before speaking to a joint session of the Mass. Legislature at his state-of-the-state address. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

BOSTON -- Gov. Deval Patrick drew praise and criticism last night over a plan to remake the community-college system, including unifying the state's 15 campuses, unveiled in his annual state of the state address.

Delivering his sixth televised address to a joint session of the Legislature last night, Patrick urged lawmakers to lower health-care costs and revise the state's criminal sentencing laws to focus on the most violent offenders.

But he made community colleges the centerpiece of his 24-minute speech, saying the schools must do a better job training 240,000 unemployed workers for nearly 120,000 job openings.

Patrick's proposal calls for consolidating the management of the state's community colleges under the Board of Higher Education, which would set new curriculum standards and new guidelines for selecting presidents for the colleges.

Mount Wachusett Community College President Daniel Asquino, who learned of Patrick's proposal yesterday afternoon, said he is looking for more specifics, adding that he is concerned about his school's board of trustees ceding control to a state board.

"They know the local community," Asquino said of the trustees. "We don't have to go to Boston every time we want to do something, so to centralize that in Boston is going to slow things down. Many of the folks don't know what's going on here in North Central Massachusetts.

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Patrick's budget proposal, due for release tomorrow, will include a $10 million increase in funding for community colleges. Patrick said the schools must do a better job forging relationships with employers, vocational schools and local Workforce Investment Boards.

"We can't do that if 15 different campuses have 15 different strategies," Patrick said. "We need to do this together."

A report released by the Commonwealth Corporation last year found that community colleges are not properly training enough students for high-demand jobs in the health-care industry. The report also found that community colleges have failed to create uniform standards for academic performance.

Asquino praised Patrick for recognizing the role community colleges play in training people for the workforce, but he questioned the governor's assertion that 120,000 jobs in Massachusetts are unfilled due to a lack of trained workers.

"Tell us where they are," Asquino said. "Give us the list, and let's put these people back to work."

Patrick also renewed his call for new sentencing laws that toughen penalties for the state's most violent criminals while at the same time making nonviolent drug offenders eligible for parole sooner. He vowed to not sign a bill that included one without the other.

The governor said he would support a so-called "three strikes" bill imposing a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole for anyone whose third felony is murder or a similarly heinous crime.

But he said the state also needs better options for nonviolent offenders who are subject to mandatory minimum sentences, citing the rising spending on prisons. He said simply warehousing offenders is a costly policy failure.

"We must be smarter about how we protect public safety," he said. "That means targeting the most dangerous and damaging for the strictest sentences, and better preparing the nondangerous for eventual release and reintegration."

Fitchburg Mayor Lisa Wong, who attended Patrick's speech, said the governor's proposals dealing with crime are key to Fitchburg's future.

"We are wasting a lot of money when it comes to public safety by addressing the symptoms and putting Band-Aids on problems," Wong said. "Fitchburg is no different. With our courts, with us dealing with public-safety issues in an urban environment, we are going to see direct impact if we use our dollars smartly."

Patrick also made a renewed appeal for passage of a health-care cost-containment bill that he first proposed last February but the Legislature has yet to act on. The measure would replace the current "fee-for-service" system for health care based on the frequency of tests and procedures to a "global payment" system that would stress overall patient outcomes.

"We need to put an end to the 'fee-for-service' model," Patrick said. "We need to stop paying for the amount of care and start paying for the quality of care."

State Rep. Rich Bastien, R-Gardner, said lawmakers will spend the coming weeks analyzing the specifics of Patrick's proposals.

"How many times has the governor promised us candy canes and lollipops and gives us leftovers?" Bastien said. "So I want to look at the substance."

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